Yesterday I was conducting a website evaluation for a site that contains a right side column of information intended to express the credibility of the site owner. Each section of this long column began with a few words that are underlined. However, none of them were links. As a conditioned creature of the Internet, I can’t tell you how many times I tried to click them anyway - even when I knew that none of them were going to take me anywhere.

Why does underlining words that don’t link anywhere matter?

The first reason is convention. Or, another way to say it - conditioned behavior. We know that since the beginning of Internet time, a procedure was invented to signal a way to get from point A to point B. Most probably that direction is an underlined word that when clicked, changes color and even if not clicked, often is a different color from the rest of the content. It may even be a different font face and size. And, it’s underlined. It takes the visitor somewhere else.

In today’s web design, color as a link indicator is no longer a valid, confident clue. For starters, screen readers don’t note color changes. In addition, web designers have wanted creative freedom, and this has meant color changes that occur only when a word is moused over. It has meant any color, not just the standard blue and purple. The right column I was presented with had underlined words presented in the same color font and same font size as the rest of the content inside the column. The underline decoration just screamed to be clicked by its plain old innocent self.

The second reason why these words that went nowhere caused frustration was their purpose. The content was all about explaining the expertise of the web site owner, with accomplishments, awards, memberships in organizations, and other related items. But, none of it could be verified for truth. Without a link, there was no way to know such a place or organization even existed. They were empty words.

Credibility and authenticity are vital elements in user centered design. Sometimes it seems as though creativity interferes with this. That’s a shame. If the purpose of a site is to sell products or services, trust is important. Proof of good honest service is even better.

There are many ways to skin a hyperlink. It’s become a serious discussion in Should links still be underlined and blue?. As you can see, convention is often tossed to the wind and the web user be damned.

Related blog post at GrayWolf: Inline Linking Bad for Usability. Are embedded text links annoying to site visitors?

One of the nagging thoughts that’s been on my mind, especially as a result of beginning to perform blog usability reviews and comments on Blog Usability Interview with Kim Krause Berg is that I wonder how many bloggers even WANT their blogs to be usable?

By that, I mean, do they want their blogs to be user (reader) centered? Do they want it to be read every day, or visited once in awhile? Do they want to write to their readers, or speak at them?

It relates to incentives. Goals. What’s curious to me is that so many blogs aren’t genuine blogs. They are, as Michael Martinez has been calling them, “Mushblogs” or “Frogblogs”. I see these in my feeds quite often and have started to figure out which are not worth clicking on. They are titles with a gobblety gook of words and/or description of words that are tossed into a heap and make no sense. These are blogs that aren’t for people and so, usability isn’t considered.

I was wondering. For you that are blog owners. How much do you really, honestly care about the usability side? By this I’m referring to meeting your visitors needs, conveying your posts with clarity and thought, and related things like communicating brand or creating community. Or, is the sole priority to rank in engines and/or generate ad revenue and nothing else matters?

Discussion and Poll: Do You Want Your Blog to Be User Centered?

As he says, he threw me a curve when he asked for a usability review and then added, “for my blog”. I started to turn him down (!) because my testing is designed to be done on large, regular web sites.

Thankfully, we discussed a “proof of concept” approach and I wrote a 15 page test plan just for blogs. The result is a blog review that allows me to provide an objective perspective. It also lets me ask questions and offer food for thought for improvements, or solutions to known issues. It’s designed to be very flexible because the art of blogging is fluid. It’s a beautiful wild child that refuses to conform to any set of rules and yet has strong aspirations and goals for success.

In Aaron’s case, he owns a business blog that generates revenue. It’s cutting edge. It’s the new age of blogging and he’s one of the pioneers. He has a product and he has services, but he also covers industry news and happenings. He writes commentary. He has a solid reputation in the industry, which offers his blog strong appeal. Unlike newcomers who are unknowns, people with a known brand or name have a head start in the blogosphere.

But, that doesn’t mean they aren’t facing problems that all bloggers face.

The result of spending time with Aaron is the interview he has running in his blog today, called Blog Usability Interview with Kim Krause Berg

I especially like it when these things appear. My kids think all I do is play with Dakota (our golden retriever) all day.

After reading on the Internet, for ten years, everything I ever wanted to know about search engines and how to market to them, I was surprised to discover how much cooler it is to get the new Search Marketing Standard magazine in the mail.

It’s glossy. Colorful. With readable fonts that don’t need to be resized. The full-page ads are classy and bold. Articles start off on the left page and continue in sequence with little interruption. Featured sections are well labeled. It looks professional. It graces my coffee table.

What Can A Print Magazine Offer?

Published in the USA by Boris Mordkovich, with Andrey Milyan as Editor-in-Chief, this quarterly industry print publication has made its long awaited debut. Articles cover current hot topics such as measurements and web analysis for SEO, demographic targeting for Google Adwords, and a piece by Alexandre Brabant called “Targeting the Tail: How to Get the Most Out of Every Marketing Dollar.”

For someone seeking to understand the Search Engine Marketing industry better, and how to choose reputable SEO’s, there is an article on myths and scams to avoid.

The product review section features one product, which considering how many products are available to SEO’s to help them do their jobs, that was a surprise. In future issues I can see this section being really popular, both for the companies with the products, as well as those who wish to get good reviews. There are few objective places to turn to for reviews on the Internet, or places to get side by side consumer comparisons.

Included are an Interview (this issue was with Perry Marshall, an SEM consultant from Chicago), a page to advertise SEM Radio and SEM Blogs and an Industry Watch section, which discussed click fraud.

My only complaint is that the issue is too thin. It is similar to the quarterly publication for members of the UPA (Usability Professionals Association), that I also look forward to getting. It, too, is thin. Both publications seek out current industry developments and ways to support best practices - and for that, a passionate professional can never get enough objective, well researched information. Can they?

If you seek a cover to cover read, this is worth a subscription and definitely a fine place to see your company logo sparkling on large shiny pages. What struck me the most is how helpful a magazine like this is, especially to beginners or those expanding their skillsets. It’s a great reference that you can keep with you and take places your laptop won’t go.

The magazine staff wants to hear your feedback. You can either contact them directly, or use Cre8asiteforums, where they are monitoring a thread devoted to their magazine. They’ve invited comments there.

I Changed My Picture

I’m very proud of my accomplishments. I think we all have a story, and mine is one of those “single mom kicks a**” ones. I taught myself HTML in 1995 because I was going through a divorce and I had no intention of asking for financial support. I was a (stubborn) stay at home mom with some old computer skills from my pre-kid days, so I bought a cheap 387 PC, stuck it in the kitchen and began copying source code until I was good enough to apply for a job in web design. I got my first job after my first job interview. It was the beginning of my new life. I didn’t have a clue where I was going but I knew I was going forward and I was going to be a great independently fiercely stubborn woman-mom on my own terms.

The new picture on the Cre8pc homepage was taken in 1995, when I was embarking on my new career, although I wasn’t sure exactly what career that was. I only knew I was going somewhere different and new. The shot of me looking off into the distance (sitting on my kids’ wooden playset fort) is very symbolic, especially because I knew that day that my life was going to take a drastic turn.

How many women came with me?

It seemed back then that I was in the minority, being a woman, fasciated with web sites and being glued to the Internet. I would say, “I’m a webmaster” and people would laugh, or look befuddled and ask “You’re a what master?”. Those were the days when my first boss called me his “web mistress” . He’s the same one who also refered to me as his “overachiever.”

At Cre8asiteforums, the subject of women and the Internet is still hot. Apparently women are taking over the place, or at least some segments of it.

That includes women bloggers, those who shatter the myths, those who blow me away with their sense of style and those who started out way back when I did and never gave up.

Nowadays, I’m in very good company.

In the black hat/white hat world of search engine optimization, there is also the perception by some in the industry that there may be little need to consider the needs of people in their SEO practices. In their determination to meet the challenges presented by search engines and search algorithms, some lack consideration for what people do with websites once they find them.

Even more interesting is when an SEO forgets that the voice of the people holds tremendous value in determining page rank and page indexing.

I’m unsure why some SEO’s neglect and ignore web design practices that blend, and invite as welcome friends, usability, accessibility, quality assurance, customer satisfaction and information architecture.

In a recent interview between Mike Grehan and Google’s Matt Cutts, Matt says,

“And the best advice I can give is don’t worry or over think or try to strategize too hard over is — or isn’t — there a sandbox. Just make a great site, with great content and a normal reason why people would want to link to you and visit your site. A compelling reason why people would want to link to your site. And that’s going to help you capture the mind of the blogosphere and that’s really the best way to let search engines find out about you too.”

I’ve found that what Matt describes as “great content”, “normal reason…to link and visit your site” and capturing the “blogosphere” all require elements from user centered design, persuasive architecture, usability, accessibility and captology, which is about changing human behavior.

Efforts that solely go into changing search engine behavior only go a short distance. Personally, I wouldn’t pay for SEO services that offer only half the golden key.

The Other Side Is at the SEO Door

How important are people to design? Technorati design is the topic of What Would Google Do?. I had to laugh while reading it. I remember asking something similar, before Google became King. The question used to be - “What Would Amazon Do?”

Anyway, the people part of the design equation showed up in this quote from the article, when asking designers to consider the ramifications of using Google simplicity as their guiding light:

1. You don’t care enough about your users to bother talking to them about why they should care about you (and, therefore, they won’t)
2. You’re as unoriginal as the guy selling knockoff handbags on the corner, so it’s probably best to just avoid eye contact altogether.

There again, it’s about the web site visitor and their behavior and reactions. This was important enough for Chris McEvoy to find a way to make Google usable and understandabe.

When Jakob Nielsen was interviewed by John Scott, Nielsen said this about the relationship between usability and search engine optimization, and what design techniques are most supportive to SEO techniques.

“I see three main classes of techniques: word use and writing; site architecture; and reputation building.”

In Jakob Nielsen’s new book, Prioritizing Web Usability, an entire section is devoted to search engine marketing techniques. Early in the book, in Chapter 2, “The Web User Experience”, you will read about “Organic and Sponsored Links”, “Number One Guideline for Search Engine Optimization” and “How People Use the Search Engine Results”. Chapter 5 is simply called “Search”. It starts off with “The State of Search” and ends with “Reputation SEO”.

All that, in a book on web site usability.

And, The Other Side is at the Usability Door

In the reverse, search engines have spent a bundle researching how people search. The results are found in changing SERPs (Search engine results pages). In fact, the trend now is that we’re all delivered different search results from each other.

All the more reason to consider the people-side of optimization, isn’t it?

Performance Matters

Search engine marketing may appear “easy”. How hard is it to pay big bucks to be placed in the number one spot on a search results page? Well, which keyword do you want to buy or optimize for? What do your web site visitors type in to find you? Where is your company located in the world? Who is your target market? What will you do, once they find your web site, to satisfy their need(s)?

This is the performance side, and it gets measured, analyzed and scrutinized. It matters because of what Matt Cutts and others have been saying. There has to be something amazing about your web site to get it screaming down search engine highways. It’s how your site’s pages are quickly found.

It’s why people arrive the first time, and come back, again and again. That’s why user (people) centered design matters to search engine marketing.